Publications

September 2020 (Revised June 2021)
Case

Gong: Resonating Conversational Insights

By: Alison Wood Brooks and Trevor Spelman

In 2015, Amit Bendov was struck by a realization about a new technology that might be able to transcribe musical notation in real-time, which eventually became known as Gong. Gong’s business proposition was simple: provide software that automatically captures,... View Details

Keywords: Applications and Software; Technological Innovation; Communication; Performance Effectiveness; Sales; Customer Satisfaction; Competitive Strategy

May 1999
Background Note

Note on Behavioral Pricing

By: John T. Gourville

The note introduces the behavioral or psychological aspects of consumer price acceptance. Begins by reviewing the traditional economic approach to product pricing and consumer price acceptance--namely, that consumers should be willing to purchase anytime a product's... View Details

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; Decisions; Fairness; Price; Marketing Strategy; Behavior; Perspective; Public Opinion

Profile

Tessa Vacher-Desvernais

Vuitton Moët Hennessy Group. “I was passionate about compelling and aspirational stories,” says Tessa. Fascinated by their galvanizing power, she wanted to build brands. The customer journey and emotional experience encouraged her to... View Details

Keywords: Retail/Hospitality; Financial Services

28 Apr 2020
Blog Post

A Crash Course in Saving a Family Business

she needs help reaching existing Bean&Bean customers and attracting new ones. For counsel, she turned to Sarah Endline (MBA 2001), an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Harvard Innovation Lab (i-lab) and former CEO of sweetriot, a... View Details

25 Aug 2022
News

Vision: To Go-Go

For all their variety, restaurants have two things in common: a kitchen where food is prepared and a dining area where customers consume it. But what if you could use technology to ditch the dining area and just keep the kitchen, trimming... View Details

Keywords: Alexander Gelfand; entrepreneurship; foodtech; startup; Latin America

01 Jun 2022
News

Vision: Into the Breach

perform automated scans of its clients’ systems for the duration of their policies, finding and plugging security holes as they appear. With approximately 14,000 customers and 2,000 more signing up each month, the company performs roughly... View Details

Keywords: Alexander Gelfand

11 May 2011
Research & Ideas

Building a Better Board

stock price doing OK? "It was a 10-minute conversation, and that was that," Kaufman says. These days, the assessment is usually much more wide-spread, taking into account both quantitative and qualitative metrics other than just recent financial results, such... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

May 1982 (Revised April 1984)
Case

Consolidated Foods Corp. (A)

Top management at Consolidated Foods was concerned about consumer complaints and threatened boycotts, some relating to television and print ad content and others relating to sponsorship of television programs thought to portray excessive sex or violence. Describes the... View Details

Keywords: Customers; Marketing Communications; Crisis Management; Advertising

01 Jun 2017
News

Case Study: Something New

sold for $5,000 in a boutique might cost as little as $200 in labor and supplies. By working directly with the factories, Anomalie can produce a custom gown for about $1,200. In the first two months that it was open for business, Anomalie... View Details

Keywords: April White

January 2000
Case

Talbots - A Classic

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Marie Bell

This case traces why the $1 billion women's clothing retailer decided to attract younger customers, what went wrong, and the actions taken to recover. By the end of 1999, the company has reestablished itself and faces several growth opportunities and must decide on the... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Decisions; Crisis Management; Product Positioning; Problems and Challenges; Segmentation; Fashion Industry

February 1998 (Revised February 1999)
Case

Amway Japan Limited

In April 1997, the president of Amway Japan (AJL, Tokyo, Japan), pondered how to reverse the first performance decline the company has experienced since entering the Japanese direct selling market in 1979. Established as the tenth overseas subsidiary of Amway Corp. of... View Details

Keywords: Strategic Planning; Motivation and Incentives; Business Subsidiaries; Distribution Channels; Customer Satisfaction; Consumer Products Industry; Michigan; Tokyo

05 Oct 2010
First Look

First Look: October 5, 2010

and market-implied yields fell, and the ability of ratings to predict default deteriorated. We offer several possible explanations for these findings that are linked to existing theories. Download the paper: http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/09-051.pdf The Impact of... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

2009
Case

What People Want (and How to Predict It)

By: Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris

Historically, neither the creators nor the distributors of cultural products such as books or movies have used analytics -- data, statistics, predictive modeling -- to determine the likely success of their offerings. Instead, companies relied on the brilliance of... View Details

Keywords: Product Development; Creativity; Customer Satisfaction; Forecasting and Prediction; Markets; Business Model; Publishing Industry; Motion Pictures and Video Industry

January 2008
Case

Parks Capital - Investment in US Retail, Inc.

Parks Capital acquired a Children's Apparel Manufacturer , American Child Clothing Manufacturers, Inc. (ACCM), in 2001. Two years later ACCM's largest retail customer, U.S. Retail, Inc., decided to evaluate strategic alternatives due to financial difficulties. Parks... View Details

Keywords: Mergers and Acquisitions; Customer Value and Value Chain; Private Equity; Vertical Integration; Apparel and Accessories Industry; Manufacturing Industry; Retail Industry; United States

Find at Harvard

Web

Influencing Practice | Social Enterprise | Harvard Business School

One of the primary interfaces between the Social Enterprise Initiative and practitioners is through our open enrollment and custom Executive Education programs offered each year. 1_0fzgdmtm Strategic Perspectives In Nonprofit Management... View Details

November 2007 (Revised April 2008)
Case

Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar: A Rural Business Initiative

By: David E. Bell, Nitin Sanghavi, Virginia Fuller and Mary L. Shelman

In rural India, farmers historically had limited access to quality input items for both their fields and homes. Indian conglomerate DSCL has undertaken a Rural Business Initiative to address this issue, establishing a chain of retail outlets throughout rural India... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Business Conglomerates; Agribusiness; Rural Scope; Customer Relationship Management; Business Strategy; Service Operations; Networks; Alliances; Retail Industry; India